Background
Persistent infection with
Helicobacter pylori (
H. pylori) induces chronic inflammation, tissue damage, deregulation of cellular regeneration and gastric carcinogenesis. The adhesion of
H. pylori to epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa induces a marked inflammatory response, leading to chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer [
1,
2].
H. pylori colonize the gastric mucosa of up to 70 to 80% of the adults living in developing regions such as Africa and Latin America [
3,
4]. In Mexico, the seroprevalence of
H. pylori is 58 to 66.7% in people without symptoms of dyspepsia [
5‐
8]; in patients with gastroduodenal pathology, the frequency of infection ranges from 60.1 to 87.4% [
6,
9‐
12], a higher prevalence than that in some Southeast Asian countries [
4]. However, not all carriers develop severe gastrointestinal diseases with clinical symptoms. Gastroduodenal diseases result from the interaction between genotypes of
H. pylori and host and environment factors [
13,
14].
The genomes of
H. pylori are heterogeneous and encode different virulence factors that play an important role in the clinical outcome of the infection [
1]. The proteins encoded by the
cagA,
vacA and
babA2 genes determine the pathogenicity of
H. pylori and have been well described [
15].
The
babA2 gene encodes the blood group antigen-binding adhesin (BabA), which binds to the fucosylated Lewis b antigen present on the surface of gastric epithelial cells. BabA facilitates colonization, persistence of infection and release of virulence factors of the bacterium. Infection with
babA2-positive
H. pylori has been associated with gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and gastric adenocarcinoma and is related to increased risk of severe disease when it coexists with the
cagA gene and the
vacA s1 allele. Although three
bab alleles have been identified (
babA1,
babA2,
babB), only the product of the
babA2 gene is required for the binding of
H. pylori to Lewis b. The association of BabA2 with severe gastric disease is controversial, but it is known that the interaction between BabA2 and Le
b activates the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (CCL5, IL-8) and other molecules related to precancerous lesions (CDX2, MUC2) [
1,
2,
15‐
18]. The frequency of
babA2-positive
H. pylori ranges from 21.7 to 82.3% in Latin American countries [
10,
19,
20].
The cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) is a protein of 125–145 kDa encoded by the
cagA gene, and an important virulence factor of
H. pylori. The
cagA gene is part of a genetic locus of 40 kb called
cag pathogenicity island (
cag-PAI) consisting of 27–31 genes, including those that encode a type IV secretion system (T4SS) that is responsible for the translocation of CagA to the cytoplasm of gastric epithelial cells by
cagA-positive strains of
H. pylori [
21‐
23]. The
cagA gene is a marker for the presence of
cag-PAI; however, not all strains expressing the CagA protein genes express all
cag-PAI genes. Based on the presence of
cagA, the strains of
H. pylori are grouped into
cagA-positives and
cagA-negatives. The prevalence of gastric diseases associated with
H. pylori is higher among patients infected with
cagA-positive strains. CagA is translocated into epithelial cells and activates signaling pathways that induce cellular changes and the production of IL-8 and other proinflammatory cytokines. The proinflammatory potential of
cagA-positive
H. pylori may explain its association with severe atrophic gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric adenocarcinoma [
24‐
26]. The frequency of
cagA-positive
H. pylori is 90–95% in Asian countries and 50–60% in Western countries. In Mexico, the prevalence of
cagA varies from 47.6 to 63.4%, and the prevalence of anti-CagA+ antibodies among patients with gastric diseases reaches to 70.9% [
12,
27]. The distribution of
cagA-positive strains varies between regions and ethnic groups [
28‐
30].
The vacuolating cytotoxin A (VacA) of
H. pylori is associated with the risk of developing gastric cancer. VacA is encoded by the
vacA gene, present in all strains of
H. pylori. The
vacA gene has a variable structure in the signal region (
s), with
s1 or
s2 allele types; the intermediate region (
i) exists as subtypes 1 and 2, while the middle region (
m) has
m1 and
m2 allele types. The combination of allele types from each region results in the structure of the
vacA gene, which determines the levels of toxin production. The
vacA s1/
m1 strains of
H. pylori produce high levels of cytotoxin; the
s1/m2 strains produce moderate levels, while the
s2/
m2 strains produce minimal concentrations or do not produce it at all [
31,
32]. The
s1m1 and
s1m2 genotypes generate VacA isoforms that cause direct damage to the gastric epithelium and stimulate an acute inflammatory process, which may lead to chronic gastritis or gastric ulcer [
33‐
37]. The prevalence of the genotypes of
H. pylori that express the most virulent factors changes with the geographic area [
15], and the prevalence of infection with
H. pylori
vacA s1m1 correlates with increased risk of disease [
38].
The incidence of gastritis, ulcers and duodenitis has increased in the Mexican population in the last 10 years [
39]. It is recognized that up to 80% of functional dyspepsia, 85–90% of peptic ulcers and 90% of gastric cancers are associated with infection by
H. pylori [
40]. The incidence rate of gastric cancer in Mexican men and women is 7.9 and 6.0/100,000, respectively [
41]. However, despite the increase in the number of cases associated with
H. pylori, there are few data on the prevalence of this infection in some gastroduodenal diseases, and still fewer on the distribution of the
vacA,
cagA or
vacA/
cagA genotypes in patients with peptic ulcers, non-ulcer dyspepsia or gastric cancer [
6,
10,
11,
27,
42‐
45], while there is only one study on the frequency of the
vacA,
cagA and
babA2 genotypes in patients with chronic gastritis [
10]. There are no studies on the prevalence of
H. pylori, the distribution of the
vacA,
cagA and
babA2 genotypes and, simultaneously, on the relationship of these genes with clinical outcome in Southern Mexico population. The objective of this research was to determine the frequency of gastric infection and the distribution of the
vacA,
cagA and
babA2 genotypes of
H. pylori in patients with gastric ulcer (GU), chronic gastritis (CG) and gastric cancer (GC). We also evaluated the association of these virulent genotypes with clinical outcome. This information will reveal the distribution of genotypes of
H. pylori in Southern Mexico and may be useful for understanding the clinical relevance of genotyping in order to predict the clinical outcome of infection and to define therapeutic and prevention strategies for gastroduodenal diseases related to infection.
Discussion
Helicobacter pylori is an important human pathogen associated with most cases of peptic ulcer disease, gastritis and gastric adenocarcinoma. In most people, infection with
H. pylori is restricted to the gastric antrum, but in some patients the infection spreads both through the body and antrum [
53].
There are few studies on the prevalence of H. pylori and of its vacA, cagA and babA2 genotypes in the Mexican population, and the data on the association of these genotypes with gastric diseases are still controversial in most countries. The clinical relevance and geographical distribution of the virulent genotypes of H. pylori is still a matter of debate. This study reports the prevalence and relationship of virulence genes (vacA, cagA and babA2) of H. pylori with clinical status in patients from South of Mexico.
The prevalence of
H. pylori infection in chronic gastritis and gastric ulcer patients was 47.8% and 49.6%, respectively, lower than that reported in other studies [
6,
10,
11]. An important finding of this study was that seven (1%) children aged 11-16 years had chronic gastritis and infection with
H. pylori cagA+ , and that a 19-year-old was diagnosed with gastric ulcer and
H. pylori
vacA s1m1/
cagA+/
babA2+. Gonzalez-Valencia et al. also reported that children from 2 to 16 years with abdominal pain were infected with
s1 or
s2/
cagA+ genotypes. Infection with virulent genotypes of
H. pylori at an early age may be related to the occurrence of gastric cancer before age 30. In gastric cancer patients, the prevalence of
H. pylori was 61.5%, similar to that found in Mexican patients in a different geographical region (60%) [
9] and exceeding that reported by other authors (38%) [
44]. The differences in the prevalence of
H. pylori in people from the same country may be due to the different number of biopsies analyzed for each patient, the variable number of bacteria harbored by the tissue studied, the difference in sensitivity and specificity of the PCR method used, the geographic region and the environmental health conditions of the population studied.
In gastric cancer patients, the frequency of
H. pylori was higher in normal tissues adjacent to cancer (69.2%) than in the tumor (53.8%). Similar findings were made in Chinese patients [
54] and in Mexican patients [
44] with gastric cancer. Although
H. pylori can survive in the tumor, the microenvironment of cancerous epithelium and the changes experienced by cancer cells are detrimental to the survival of the bacteria [
54]. Zhang et al, even proposed that the atrophic mucosa and intestinal metaplasia are detrimental to the growth of
H. pylori, and Tang et al, mention that
H. pylori plays an important role in early gastric carcinogenesis, but that it probably has less influence on later stages of the disease [
54,
55]. In this study,
H. pylori is associated with gastric cancer but not with gastric ulcer.
Helicobacter pylori strains with the
s1 allele in the signal region of
vacA were found in 83.3 and 84.5% of patients with chronic gastritis and gastric ulcer, respectively. The percentage increased to 91.3% in gastric cancer patients. With respect to the middle region, the
m1 allele was found in 60.9 and 67.9% of patients in the two groups without cancer, while
m1 strains were found in 90.9% of the patients with cancer. As has been demonstrated in other studies in the Mexican population [
6,
10,
42,
43], the predominant allelic combination was
s1m1, followed by
s1m2 in patients with GC, GU and CG. Our results show that 60% of
H. pylori-positive patients were infected with virulent
vacA s1m1 strains, alone or in co-infection with the
s1m2 genotype. The
vacA s1m1 genotype was associated with GU and GC. The VacA protein, a product of the
s1m1 combination, induces a more severe infiltration of neutrophils, and has higher vacuolating and apoptosis-inducing activity than the
s2m2 variant. In addition, VacA inhibits the expansion of the T cells activated by bacterial antigens and thus helps
H. pylori evade the adaptive immune response and promotes the persistence of infection [
53‐
55]. These properties of VacA may explain the association of the
s1m1 isoform with gastric ulcer and cancer. Interestingly, we found infection with
H. pylori s2m2 in tumor and in tissue adjacent to cancer in two patients with gastric cancer; both strains were
cagA-negative, but one was
babA2-positive. Lopez-Vidal et al, also found the
s2 and
m2 alleles in Mexican patients with cancer [
44]. This finding suggests that other virulence factors of
H. pylori may be involved in cancer induction. It has been found that gastric cancer patients infected with
Tipα+ strains of
H. pylori produce significantly higher amounts of TNF-α than patients with chronic gastritis, and that the TNF-α-induced inflammatory response plays a significant role in the development of gastritis and gastric carcinoma associated with infection by
H. pylori [
56].
Although all strains of
H. pylori contain the
vacA gene, it was impossible to detect the
m and
s regions of this gene in the genomic DNA of 42 of the 448 patients infected. Similar results have been reported in the Mexican population [
43,
44]. The genetic diversity of the
s and
m regions and the existence of undetectable
vacA genes may explain the difficulty in genotyping some strains [
45,
57,
58]. Moreover,
H. pylori contain at least two copies of the
16S and
23S rRNA genes but only one of the
vacA gene [
59]. In some samples, the amplification signal of
16S rRNA was almost undetectable (Fig.
3a, b); it is thus likely that the number of copies of the
vacA gene was insufficient for detection by PCR.
The prevalence of
cagA in this population was 57% in chronic gastritis patients, 61.4% in gastric ulcer patients and 58.3% in gastric cancer patients. This prevalence is lower than that reported in Central and South America [
15,
19,
60], but it is in agreement with previous studies in Mexico [
10,
27]. The
cagA-positive strains of
H. pylori have been associated with a more severe inflammation of the gastric mucosa that precedes atrophic gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer [
61‐
65]. In this research,
cagA was not associated with gastric ulcer or cancer. This finding is in agreement with those reported by other authors in Mexican patients [
45]. It is likely that gastric ulcer and cancer are associated only with the CagA isoforms that contain repetitions of the EPIYA-C motif. The type and number of EPIYA motifs in CagA was not determined in this research.
Interestingly,
cagA was found in 71.4% (5/7) of
H. pylori-positive samples in tumor and surrounding tissue; the
s1m1/
cagA+/
babA2+ genotype was found in 57.1% (4/7) and the
s1m1/
cagA+/
babA2− genotype in 14.3% (1/7). This result is consistent with the activity of CagA to induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cell proliferation, inhibit apoptosis, promote the loss of tight junctions and carry out other functions related to tumor invasiveness and metastasis [
53,
66]. The presence of the
s2m2/
cagA−/
babA2− and
s2m2/
cagA−/
babA2+ genotypes in tumor and surrounding tissue suggests that other bacterial compounds may be involved in the promotion of carcinogenesis and tumor maintenance.
The
babA2 gene was found only in 27, 26.3 and 41.7% of chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer and cancer patients, respectively, and was marginally associated with gastric cancer (OR
adjusted = 2.5, 95% CI 0.99–6.32,
p = 0.052). The frequency of
babA2 in chronic gastritis patients was higher than that reported in Mexican patients [
10], but lower than that reported for gastritis, gastric ulcer and cancer patients in other Central and South American countries [
19,
20,
67,
68]. Oliveira et al, also found an association of
babA2 with gastric cancer in patients from Brazil [
20]. It is likely that the association of
babA2 with more severe gastric diseases that was found in this study is related to its coexistence with
cagA and
vacA s1m1 (59.7%), as suggested by Chen et al. [
69].
Authors’ contributions
GFT and MCP, ARR conceived and designed the study. JAM, JCAH, ASCC and RRR, carried out the molecular biology studies; DNMC participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis; RBL, SRN and ICdC performed the endoscopic studies of patients and made substantial contributions to acquisition of data; CACS and EMCM reviewed critically the manuscript and contributed to analysis and interpretation of data; GFT, and ARR wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.